“I am feeling tension in my whole body”: An experimental phenomenological study of empathy for pain

Abstract

IntroductionTraditionally, empathy has been studied from two main perspectives: the theory-theory approach and the simulation theory approach. These theories claim that social emotions are fundamentally constituted by mind states in the brain. In contrast, classical phenomenology and recent research based on the enactive theories consider empathy as the basic process of contacting others’ emotional experiences through direct bodily perception and sensation.ObjectiveThis study aims to enrich the knowledge of the empathic experience of pain using an experimental phenomenological method.Materials and methodsImplementing an experimental paradigm used in affective neuroscience, we exposed 28 healthy adults to a video of sportspersons suffering physical accidents while practicing extreme sports. Immediately after watching the video, each participant underwent a phenomenological interview to gather data on embodied, multi-layered dimensions (bodily sensations, emotions, and motivations) and temporal aspects of empathic experience. We also performed quantitative analyses of the phenomenological categories.ResultsExperiential access to the other person’s painful experience involves four main themes. Bodily resonance: participants felt a multiplicity of bodily, affective, and kinesthetic sensations in coordination with the sportsperson’s bodily actions. Attentional focus: some participants centered their attention more on their own personal discomfort and sensations of rejection, while others on the pain and suffering experienced by the sportspersons. Kinesthetic motivation: some participants experienced the feeling in their bodies to avoid or escape from watching the video, while others experienced the need to help the sportspersons avoid suffering any injury while practicing extreme sports. The temporality of experience: participants witnessed temporal fluctuations in their experiences, bringing intensity changes in their bodily resonance, attentional focus, and kinesthetic motivation. Finally, two experiential structures were found: one structure is self-centered empathic experience, characterized by bodily resonance, attentional focus centered on the participant’s own experience of seeing the sportsperson suffering, and self-protective kinesthetic motivation; the other structure is other-centered empathic experience, characterized by bodily resonance, attentional focus centered on the sportsperson, and prosocial kinesthetic motivation to help them.DiscussionWe show how phenomenological data may contribute to comprehending empathy for pain in social neuroscience. In addition, we address the phenomenological aspect of the enactive approach to the three dimensions of an embodiment of human consciousness, especially the intersubjective dimension. Also, based on our results, we suggest an extension of the enactive theory of non-interactive social experience.

Empathy bodyssence: temporal dynamics of sensorimotor and physiological responses and the subjective experience in synchrony with the other’s suffering

“…The analysis focused on the temporal dynamics of the experience. First, we present descriptions of the phenomenological dimensions that emerged in the analysis, followed by the full temporal structure of the empathy experience (a more comprehensive analysis of 28 out of the 35 participants, as well as a review of the codebook, can be found in our previous publication ( Martinez-Pernía et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Accompanying these intentions to act were differing attentional foci—some directed inwardly and others directed outwardly. Both dimensions underscore the intricacies of these phenomena (for more details, see Martinez-Pernía et al, 2023 ) that previous studies, which largely relied on physiological reports and self-reporting, might not have fully captured. Further research could explore the relationship between both experiences and physiological responses.…”

“…Paired t-tests showed that the videos selected for the empathy for pain stimuli were assigned significantly lower valence (pain: mean = 3.77 ± 1.94; baseline: mean = 4.97 ± 2.39; t (64) = −7.24, p < 0.001), higher arousal (pain: mean = 6.40 ± 1.78; baseline: mean = 3.02 ± 2.24; t (64) = 24.91, p < 0.001), and lower dominance (pain: mean = 5.31 ± 2.68; baseline: mean = 7.66 ± 2.25; t (64) = −14.59, p < 0.001) than baseline stimuli. The empathy for pain video was previously constructed and validated by our group, and has been utilized in prior works ( Martínez-Pernía et al, 2020 , 2023 ; Pizarro et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Further complementing this, we analyzed a diachronic structure, aligning the phenomenological categories with each temporal phase in line with the recommendations from the microphenomenological method ( Valenzuela-Moguillansky and Vásquez-Rosati, 2019 ). To enhance the integrity and consistency of our phenomenological exploration, we adopted an iterative method within the triangulation process, including an inter-rater agreement index ( Martínez-Pernía et al, 2023 ). The details of this comprehensive process will be outlined below ( Figure 1 ).…”

“…Through our lived body we experience the physical expressions of others as meaningful actions that communicate their intentions, needs, and objectives within a shared context ( Gallagher, 2012 ; Tanaka, 2015 ; Fuchs, 2017 ). In this sense, phenomenological descriptions have demonstrated the multidimensional and complex dynamic nature of subjective experiences of empathy and how they are formed by neurophysiological responses ( Grice-Jackson et al, 2017a ; Martínez-Pernía et al, 2023 ). For example, Grice-Jackson et al (2017b) used bodily experience descriptions to distinguish different responders in a classic empathy for pain study.…”